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Ohio State University News Tips for 4/22/16

Ohio State Marching Band drum major tryouts open to public – April 24. Drum major tryouts for The Ohio State University Marching Band’s 2016-2017 season will take place at 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 24. The tryouts are open to the public and will be held at the Harmon Family Football Park, adjacent to the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, 2491 Olentangy River Road. In the event of inclement weather, tryouts will be held on the practice field inside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. Six candidates will vie for the positions of drum major and assistant drum major. Each candidate will perform the ramp entrance, a twirling routine and five high aerial tosses. Members of Ohio State’s Athletic Band and 2015 Marching Band will provide the musical accompaniment to the performances.Candidates will be adjudicated by a panel that includes the band’s directing staff and previous drum majors. The announcement of the 2016 drum major and assistant drum major will take place at the conclusion of tryouts, after results are tabulated.Seating is limited, and guests are welcome to bring a folding chair and/or blanket to sit on. Paid parking is available in designated pay-to-park spaces. CONTACT: Kevin Leonardi, 614-292-5935, leonardi.19@osu.edu .

Senior engineering students showcase final projects, inventions – April 26. A more aerodynamic street luge sled design, an off-road wheelchair device and a prescription management app are just a few of the projects and inventions that undergraduate engineering student teams will present on Tuesday, April 26, at Ohio State. More than 750 students, representing 12 engineering majors and 24 non-engineering majors, will exhibit 180+ projects during the 8th annual Engineering Capstone Design Showcase.As part of the College of Engineering’s focus on experiential learning, all undergraduate engineering students must spend one to two semesters tackling a real-world problem before graduation. The showcase takes place from noon to 3 p.m. at the Ohio Union, Archie Griffin Ballroom, 1739 N. High St. CONTACT: Matt Schutte, 614-247-6445, schutte.9@osu.edu.

Researchers pinpoint part of the brain that recognizes facial expressions. Ohio State University researchers have pinpointed the area of the brain responsible for recognizing human facial expressions.It’s on the right side of the brain behind the ear, in a region called the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS).In a paper published in the Journal of Neuroscience, the researchers report that they used functional magnetic resonance imaging to identify a region of pSTS as the part of the brain activated when test subjects looked at images of people making different facial expressions.Further, the researchers have discovered that neural patterns within the pSTS are specialized for recognizing movement in specific parts of the face. One pattern is tuned to detect a furrowed brow, another is tuned to detect the upturn of lips into a smile, and so on.“That suggests that our brains decode facial expressions by adding up sets of key muscle movements in the face of the person we are looking at,” said Aleix Martinez, a cognitive scientist and professor of electrical and computer engineering at Ohio State.SEE: https://news.osu.edu/news/2016/04/19/researchers-pinpoint-part-of-the-brain-that-recognizes-facial-expressions/.

Researchers to investigate why the elderly are more susceptible to infections. The National Institute of Aging has awarded researchers in the Center for Microbial Interface Biology an $8 million grant for an extensive infectious disease project in the next five years. The aim of the project, which also includes experts in thoracic surgery and biostatistics, is to better understand why the elderly are more susceptible to infections. The research team will focus on tuberculosis infections because older people are at high risk of developing TB and are more likely to die of the disease. Joanne Turner, a professor of microbial infection and immunity, will lead the effort.SEE:http://cmib.osu.edu/article.cfm?id=8852